


I've Set You Free

by aquamarine_jo



Category: Being Human (UK)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Death, F/M, Secrets, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-20 10:40:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1507520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquamarine_jo/pseuds/aquamarine_jo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cutler's thoughts on Rachel's death</p>
            </blockquote>





	I've Set You Free

**Author's Note:**

> I set myself the challenge of a 500 word flashfic and as my usual chapters tend to be 5,000 words or more it was interesting! Read, enjoy if you can and comment if you wish – no obligation  
> (Previously posted on FFN, this version has some minor edits) 
> 
> As always – these are not my toys but I'm playing with them nicely.  
> Mostly.

**I've Set You Free**

She is limp and cold and very, very dead and when he sees her his first reaction is horror. There is so much blood. He can't begin to imagine how much she had suffered. Then a new feeling overwhelms him, filling him with shame and shock.

Relief.

A relief so powerful that his legs won't hold him and rough hands drag him up from the floor. He can hear Hal talking, realises that the blood he drank was Rachel's and he almost laughs. How could it have been? Surely her blood would be thin and bitter, nothing like the rich, salty liquid he savoured, that he can still taste in his throat.

Hal's voice changes, no longer light, amused; now it's hard but it sounds so far away. He's speaking of freedom and the word echoes around his head. The concept is alien; it's so long since he has thought of his own life, his own way and his own choices that it feels wrong. It hurts.

Freedom.

The mask he's worn for so long stays in place, he is shattered and grieving.  His wife, his angel torn apart; his human happiness ripped away and trampled underfoot. The world believed he had the perfect marriage, that they were happy – more than happy. He propagated that myth, cherished it and let it grow and establish. An abused wife got no sympathy or support, had no rights. He was educated, a professional man – what hope did he have of anyone ever understanding?

He feels hysteria rising; he wants to laugh and scream and howl but he bites it down. Hal must never know. He would see condescension, maybe sympathy, perhaps pity and he would never escape the humiliation and the stigma. But now he can break away.

New beginnings.

The memories flood his head as they leave him slumped on the floor beside her corpse, bathed in the smell of her blood, faint traces of decay as her body begins to rot. Her beautiful face with its sparkling eyes, the pouting lips that spewed venom at him every day. The lovers she took in their bed, flaunting them, throwing scorn on his inadequacies. The bruises that no one ever saw and the marks of her cigarettes that burned scars on his skin and his soul as she laughed.

He was never good enough for her; never successful enough, never strong enough. He tried, over and over and over, but it was never enough.

Now he's alone with her he can laugh, he is released. He wants to beat her, defile her body, punish her for all she'd done to him but he knows he has to wear the mask a little longer. So he strokes her hair and kisses her mouth. Her blood is on his lips and it tastes of freedom and revenge.

"Goodbye Rachel. I loved you."

He walks away without a backwards glance.

Now they are both dead it's time for his life to begin.


End file.
